


Family

by sanctuary_for_all



Category: The Night Shift (TV 2014)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, M/M, Missing Scene, post episode scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 11:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7975735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It means never having to go through things alone. ***Spoilers for the season 3 finale***</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

They stopped by the store for ice cream, an entire tub of Rocky Road that had been the result of a good 10 minutes of spirited debate. It got suspiciously quiet behind them on the way home, Bri’s steady stream of chatter absent for the last few minutes of the drive, and Drew looked back to see whether she was worrying about her biological father or anything else to do with coming home with them.

Instead, she was asleep, head thrown back against the seat and her arms still wrapped protectively around the ice cream. The extra warmth of her body heat would probably have it half-melted by the time they got home, but Drew wouldn’t have taken it from her for anything.

“How’s our girl?” Rick asked, then he glanced over at Drew and his expression softened. “Asleep, I take it?”

“Yeah.” Drew settled back against the seat, lips curving upward just a little. “We’ll definitely need to put the ice cream directly in the freezer when we get home.”

Humor lit Rick’s eyes. “I’ve always liked soft ice cream.” Then it disappeared, replaced by concern. “And it means we have time for you to tell me whatever you’ve been worried about since we left the hospital.”

Drew let out a breath. He’d planned on telling Rick everything about the walkout – it was a rule they’d instituted when they’d gotten married, that teammates told each other everything instead of trying to deal with shit on their own – but he hadn’t wanted to dim everyone’s happiness. The news could hold, at least for a little while.

The fact that Rick had apparently read it off him anyway unsettled him a little. Apparently, he wasn’t nearly as good at hiding his emotions as he used to be.

Rick glanced back over at him, clearly worried by the lack of response. “Is it about Justin?” he asked, voice low enough not to wake up Brianna. “Because you heard what Nina said. He doesn’t have a case, and if he tries anything we’ll—“

Drew closed his eyes a moment, the guilt settling in. “We walked out,” he said quietly, cutting Rick off. He didn’t regret joining everyone else, not really, but this was far from the best time to do it as far as Brianna and the adoption was concerned. He should have been thinking about his real family first, and his work family second. “The new bosses wanted to fire Topher, and Paul told his dad that if Topher went, he went. Kenny said if Paul went, we all went, and most of us walked out.” There was only silence from Rick’s end of the front seat, and Drew felt a tickle of panic in his chest as he turned back to his husband. “We’ll be okay. We’ve got savings, and I still have my weekends at the base until either we all go back or I land somewhere else. I think everyone’s hoping Paul’s dad will cave, since he just lost about 80 percent of his ER staff, but even if he doesn’t I never shut the door on some of those other job openings. I know moving’s not going to work, but Austin’s not that bad of a—“

“Drew.” Now it was Rick’s turn to cut him off, voice gentle and supportive enough that Drew felt his eyes sting unexpectedly. “It’s okay. Whatever happens, we’ll work through it together.” He smiled a little. “Not that it makes any difference, but I would have done exactly the same thing in your place.”

“Me, too,” piped up a quiet voice from the backseat, and Drew turned around to see a suddenly wide-awake Brianna staring at him with an earnest expression. Before he could kick herself for failing her as a father – Rick needed to know, but this definitely isn’t the kind of crap you should be burdening a kid with – she moved the ice cream off her lap and squeezed his arm. “You couldn’t leave Topher behind, either.”

She looked… she looked _proud_ of him, and Drew’s chest constricted like someone had wrapped a fist around his heart. He covered her hand with his other one, squeezing it and trying not to get teary. “We’ll figure it out,” he managed, voice rough with emotion.

“As a family,” Rick added, shooting Drew an affectionate look.

Bri smiled, and Drew was so full of love for both of them that he felt like he could barely breathe. A small sacrifice, in the long run.

He smiled at the two people who meant more to him than anything else in the world. “As a family.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my new original fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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